Storm
by Spiral Wheel
Summary: When life turned stagnent for one Uzumaki Naruto, a mission offered in secrecy was the one thing he needed to jumpstart his career. But at what price as he spent four years in a place reknowned for its hate for Konoha? And what of the information he brin


**_Disclaimer: _**I. DO. NOT. OWN. NARUTO. There. Big Caps for the blind lawyers. :grumbles:

**This story is . . . Weird, I think. First of all, the story takes place when all the main characters are mature, in their late-twenties and early thirties in some cases. Naruto _is _mature, in a weird way, and a bit jaded. Not angst, mind, just jaded. And it shows. So don't bother me about OOCness. Consider the age, darnit!**

**And my interest in espionage and secret places kinda dominates in the first chap. :sweat drop: I swear, I will never read another Tom Clancy novel, honest.**

**Mix with a well rounded interest in Konoha' s past wars and you have an unknown mix in the melting pot. Cloud is the dominant ingredient. **

**It's rough and plotholes might be a bit obvious, but this is only the start. Hopefully, my skill will get better as the story goes. **

Uzumaki Naruto was good at what he did. Anyone who knew him would say that without hesitation. But it was rare that anyone outside of that would acknowledge it. Actually, it had never happened before, so it was understandable that when it happened, the blonde would be speechless.

"Could you repeat that, Oba-eh- Koharu-sama," Naruto risked asking, staring at the old woman in front of him. He must've heard wrong, he must have.

"If you successfully use your talents and complete this mission, the other members of the Elder Council have finally caved and decided to have that 'nonexistent' barrier removed and let you be promoted to the next level of shinobi. From _Tokubetsu _Chunin to the equivalent of inactive ANBU, or a high-level Jounin Consultant _for_ the ANBU." Koharu took a dainty sip from her tea cup, hiding a grandmotherly smile. The look of pure shock and astonishment had been worth the hassle of getting the Council to agree unanimously, sans the Godaime. An innumerable amount of threats, blackmail . . . among other things.

"From Chunin to ANBU Consultant, ne?" the blonde asked softly. He would never admit it but the normally confident ninja had begun to lose all hope of ever getting that promotion. It had been ten years, after all, since his advancement to chunin when he was fifteen. His birthday had been the week before . . . amidst the annual Mourning Festival. Yet again, no one had come forward with any knowledge that his birthday had fallen on the last of the seven days of mourning for those lost. With the exceptions of Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, and his old sensei, Jiraiya. And Hinata. Not the rest of the Rookie Nine. Not one.

It hadn't been enough. Maybe if Sakura and Sasuke had shown some interest. Even Kakashi. But without his own teammates, the ones who had been with him since the beginning . . . It wasn't, _hadn't _been enough. And it had hurt and the wound had just kept festering.

"Hai, your mission details are in here." Koharu pushed two scrolls across the table. Naruto stepped forward to grasp them, but jerked back when he saw the seal wrapped around one. A white number along inside the silhouette of a scroll.

"That scroll . . . Only bad things have ever come out of those scrolls." Said scrolls were only ever given out on S-class missions. The Suicidal missions. And Naruto had already had to open one, years ago. The experience had been the stuff of nightmares. Still was.

"Danger has never stopped you from accepting a mission before," Koharu said from behind her tea. "What is so different about this time?" she added with a small smile. Naruto answered with a his own guarded smile even as he gingerly picked up the scroll. "I'm assuming you know just whatprecautions to take?"

"Ah." Naruto, tentative, opened the other scroll and read. His expression became serious and tight and by the end, he was gazing toward the window. "Tsunade-Obaa-chan doesn't know about this, ne?"

"Of course she doesn't"

"She'll wonder where I'll be. You know how close we are."

Koharu smiled, "You let me worry about that, dear."

His eyebrows shot up. "I'm going on an officially nonexistent mission. I'll have no contact with friendly forces for four years, and when I _do _return, I'll be considered a deserter in mind, if not on paper, until _you _give evidence that I am _not_. How do I know you just don't want to kill two birds with one stone? That you _will_ defend me and clear my name as soon as I come back?"

"You still have the choice of not accepting this mission . . ." Naruto let his gaze wonder to the window again, the night half-gone and the stars scattered and bright, a trademark of the Fire Country. No other country had nights like these.

In the distance, the Monument faced the village, the stone visages like immortal sentinels.

_I'd miss it. Four _years_ of spying and infiltrating a country made famous for its storms. But at the rate my life is going, I'll never make it past where I am right now. I'll rot and my dreams will wither and die. Even I have my limits. Strange that the only one who can see this is an old woman that I've never even exchanged words with until now. _The blonde smiled wryly, hidden away from the old woman. _Neji, here's another person who has better eyes than you . . ."_

Koharu started when Naruto smirked as he turned towards her. His eyes sparkled with a determination that had started to dim in recent years. No sign of that now. "In that case, I leave my life in your hands, Koharu-Obaa-sama. I'll be gone before first light." With deft hands he pocketed both scrolls and disappeared in a whirl of leaves. Koharu gazed out the open window, at the night sky. She gave a soft, motherly smile. "Hopefully we can still save him, ne, Yondaime-sama?"

**3 Years 10 Months Later. Lightning Country.**

"_Raiton: Kyuuden_!"

The doomed shinobi only had time to widen his eyes before the ball of lightning hit him in the gut, roasting him inside and out.

Three other shinobi present only watched stoically, evidence of similar battles around them. "About _time_, Fuka, " the long-haired woman said. Her mouth was curled up in a distasteful grimace. Harino Midori was a long-haired, red-headed, green-eyed vixen with a history of impatience. She also had a body to kill for and seemed about a decade younger than she really was. But anyone who had been around her long enough soon grew immune. Unfortunately for her, this included the majority of her current team.

"Fuka-nii-san, I believe ya have just alerted ev'ry Leaf ANBU of our presence. We was warned ta be discreet, _baka_." Raikou Kanetsu, twin and younger brother to Raikou Fuka, was a serious, short-haired brunette with gray eyes, the color of storm clouds. And right now, he was again left to scold his older, rambunctious brother. Which was ridiculous considering, they were thirty and should have been well past such things.

"Leaf ANBU are slow, Otouto. We'll be long gone by the time they get 'ere. Besides, blame the target for pissin' me off an' crossin' the border." Fuka had his I-don't-give-a-shit grin on. A sharp contrast to his twin, the only thing that set them apart was their hair length. While Kanetsu had cropped hair that framed his face and was held up by his forehead protector, Fuka' s hair was long and wild, barely constrained by a loose hair tie.

"Don't underestimate the Leafs, Kanetsu-san, Fuka-san. I'll feel better when we leave this place." Fuka looked at the last of their group and scoffed but nodded anyways. In a swirl of dirt they were gone and headed for home, the carnage left behind to cause much investigation when the scene was to be discovered some five minutes later.

The one who had spoken was blonde and spiky haired, his eyes a deep stormy blue. In the back of the formation, no one seemed to notice the way he looked back briefly with a look of intense loss on his face. _Two more months. Just two more months, than you're free to escape back home. And do I have 'gifts' to bring home . . ._

To his companions, he was Hekino Kasen, a nin who had wandered into the village almost four years ago and had proven his loyalty to the Cloud many times over since. They had questioned, even interrogated, him and come up with nothing to suggest that he was anything other than what he said he was: a lonely hermit wishing to settle down where he would be of some use. As a traveler, no one questioned his wide range of jutsu knowledge, nor his affinity for Fuuin Jutsu. He had traveled up the ranks, and had become an unofficial advisor, able to give views of what was happening outside the village. His positive and kind personality had charmed many and as such was privy to knowledge usually restricted to people like those on the Council and the Raikage' s most trusted shinobi.

But underneath the façade, was a lonely and homesick nin, ready to go home after nearly four years of reconnaissance and espionage. Uzumaki Naruto couldn't wait to return to the Hidden Leaf. Being surrounded by ninja who couldn't hate Konohagakure more was enough of a motivator to get him to abandon the mission early . . . His eyes clouded in thought. _No can do, Uzumaki. _He didn't notice gray eyes narrow ahead of him. _You've never accepted a mission you've never seen to the end. Just two more months. There's a lot more we can find out in two months . . ._

Kanetsu stared thoughtfully ahead. _What was that look just now, Kasen-san? What was it? _He shook off the thought and forgot about it. Until two months later, when Hekino Kasen disappeared, his Kumo hitai-ate abandoned in his empty apartment. A note was all that was left.

**I'm sorry for the grief I am about to cause everybody. But there is a place I have to return to. A warmer place. This village has been kind to me but it is not enough to erase the longing I feel for 'home'. I was a fool. A hermit I arrived as, and a hermit I shall always be. **

**You don't have to worry about your secrets. I have no use for them and shall never use it to your harm.**

At this point, the handwriting seemed to waver.

**I will miss this village's fierceness. **

It broke off after that from what many agreed was probably intense emotion. Hekino Kasen had befriended a good many people. He had shared good nights at the bars with the guys, had bedded enough woman to earn him the title of womanizer, but every woman loved him anyways. Many a person had been stung when news of his departure got out. But life moved on in the coming weeks, with feelings nostalgia coming when a head of blonde hair was seen, when someone went to the hermit's favorite bar, or a favorite bed partner of the blonde's took on another. Whether Kasen knew it or not, he left a greater impact on the place in four years than he knew, and it was not that much of a good thing.

The Raikage forgave blonde for leaving and never considered the threat he would pose. Only Kanetsu remembered the look on Kasen's face as they left Ho no Kuni' s border, on a certain mission two months before the blonde disappeared. _What was it? _And silently he wondered. An unease filled his mind but he brushed it off every time the thought surfaced. Soon he would regret not taking the thought seriously. Beneath his smiling and friendly face, Kasen was a ninja that no one really knew anything about and worse than that, Kasen was a ninja with _knowledge. _And a ninja with knowledge was as dangerous as any, no matter what the rank.

The Cloud had willingly overlooked one thing.

Kumo had been planning a war behind closed doors for half a decade now. Whether the acknowledged it or not, Hekino Kasen knew everything. _Uzumaki Naruto _knew everything.

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**AN: **Well, an attempt at an interesting story :shrugs: I know it kind rambles on some parts but I feel like changing it will just make it worse. I'm already working on the 2nd chapter. The style might change as I go along and let the story take me wherever it will. Hopefully towards an end.

Tell me what you think, but no flames. My stressed mind can't take much of that right now.

And just in case y'all need to know

Naruto: 15 when he made Chunin

25 when he leaves

29 when he gets back

As such a lot of the older characters, like the teachers, are in well into their 40s, and some might be retired or dead. Godaime is just about ready to drop I think and Jiraiya might be a _bit_ more laid back. Not by much though.

Oh yeah, OOCs are mine! I own Kanetsu, Fuka, and MIdori, thank you very much!

_Raiton: Kyuuden_ - **Lightning Element: Ball Lightning**


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